


Understanding

by hawkstout



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Comfort, Cuddles, Gen, Same Age, insecurites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-31
Updated: 2013-08-31
Packaged: 2017-12-25 05:01:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/948915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hawkstout/pseuds/hawkstout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason doesn’t want to be replaced.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Understanding

**Author's Note:**

> So my hand is wrapped in a bandage and it’s gotten in the way of my typing so I’m doing a bunch of short fic prompts while I wait for it to heal so I can go back to my long fics. They’re all 500 words more or less.
> 
> katsai25's Prompt:
> 
> I’d love Dick & Jay with real back story but same age, where Jay’s the first adopted and Dick’s the ‘interloper’.
> 
> Hm I don’t think I captured it as I wanted to. Even being there first Jason still feels like he’s the interloper. I hope you still like it.

He clung to him. Closed his eyes tight, but nothing could stop him from hearing the terrible thud of their bodies hitting the ground. He hugged Bruce’s arms, tears sliding down his eyes. That boy, was that boy…?

He forced himself to look up. The boy was up above it all back pressed against the pole that held the platform. Jason could just make out his shuddering body. Everyone was screaming and moving. Bruce stood perfectly still. He was caught by the imagine of the two beautiful acrobats broken and twisted on the ground. Jason made himself calm down. It must remind him. Bruce must being thinking of his parents.

“We should go,” He tugged on the cuff of Bruce’s sleeve. Bruce put a comforting hand on his head. “Wait here.”

“Bruce, please.”

“Wait here,” Bruce repeated, he sounded as if he was in a dream. They got the happy boy down. He wasn’t so happy anymore. He sobbed over his dead parent’s bodies and Bruce walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder and said something and Jason could see it.

It was like a link was established. A thread tying them together.

-

It was a dull aching surprise when the boy stood in the main entrance hall, Alfred’s hand on his shoulder. He looked… scared and lost, but then he suddenly smiled. Jason looked in the direction the other boy was looking. Bruce. And Bruce was smiling gently back and it tore his heart in two because this was it. Bruce had found who he wanted to find when he had first picked up Jason in Crime Ally. He had been looking for Dick Grayson all along. Not him. He dug his nails into his palms and stubbornly held back tears.

“Jason,” Bruce’s smile was fainter now, “Come down, I want you to meet someone.”

Jason ran instead.

-

Bruce didn’t find him, though he came close a few times. Jason headed towards the room at the stroke of midnight. Bruce and Alfred were still looking, but he couldn’t face them. He didn’t want to hear about his replacement. He didn’t want to hear about how he was going to have to go to a foster home because Bruce had found the one that understands him. He didn’t want to hear the adoption was a mistake. He opened the door to his room, ready to pack his stuff and stumbled back in shock.

Moonlight spilled down onto the figure curled up in his bed. The light from the hallway reflexed off large blue eyes spilling with tears. The boy gasped in mid-sob.

His first reaction should have been anger that his replacement would be so presumptuous to move into his room so quickly, but before it could take he remembered his first night in the mansion. Even though it had happened a month previous he finally let himself cry for his Mom and even his Dad.

He sighed and moved into the room closing the door. He didn’t turn on the lights, just crawled into his bed beside the replacement, the little happy acrobat who was so sad.

“I-I-I’m sorry,” The boy was trying to talk without having his voice crack. He was failing, “I just w-wanted. I just wanted to—”

“You wanted to see the stars. It’s okay, I get it,” Jason said. He curled up beside the other boy and instantly the smaller boy was clinging to him sobbing in his shirt. He stared up at the ceiling and slowly started to pet the boy’s hair like he used to do for his Mom when she was crying. The sobs slowly subsided and soon they were just holding each other.

“I wanted to feel them.”

“I know.”

The shit about heaven and better places. He wondered if the boy in his arms believed in it. He probably didn’t, it was probably desperation. That’s how he had felt when he got here. This room had the biggest window and since the Wayne Manor was away from the city the stars were brilliant. Beautiful enough to trick you into thinking maybe there is someone looking down on you.

“My name’s Dick.”

“Jason.”

“Your Bruce’s son, right?”

“Uh…” well yes, technically.

“It’s obvious. You’re a lot like him.”

“We’re not actually…”

Dick rolled over no longer clinging to him. He pillowed against him so he could see the stars through the window. Every so often Jason would feel a tear slide down past Dick’s cheek and soak into his shirt.

“You’re both kind.”

“Kind?”

“You both understand.”

Jason shook his head, “No, it was different for me, when I lost my Mom it was…”

It was so damned inevitable.

The boy nodded his head and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “Lonely.”

Jason heaved a sigh. That wasn’t it at all. He shifted himself and Dick into a more comfortable position and spooned around him.

“Yeah,” he lied.

Truth was, he had always been lonely. When Bruce came, for the first time he had felt… needed, wanted. It’s because Bruce was like Dick. Bruce was lonely. Bruce wanted someone to understand.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but thank you—”

“Are you kidding me?” Jason smiled sadly to himself staring at the stars. He saw the future clearly. He would love this boy as a brother and they would grow together and Bruce would always be more compatible with Dick. Those two would know each other in a way that Jason would never be a part of. He would always want in. He would always want them.

“You’re a keeper Dickie-bird.”

He felt a hand grab his squeezing it tightly. “You too Jay-bird.”

Maybe it was the stars, or the sound of Dick’s breathing as he finally fell asleep, or the sincerity in the acrobat’s voice, but he couldn’t help but believe him.


End file.
